Ludibras: 

He has the will to betray us if that fancy leaves him.

Ichtharion: 

The executioner is very eager for him.  He invented a new stroke lately, but he has not had a man since we came to Thek.

Ludibras: 

I do not like an eager executioner—­the King sees him and it makes him think...

Ichtharion: 

Look how low the sun is; he has no time to betray us.  The King is not yet here.

Ludibras: 

He is coming.

Ichtharion: 

But the prophet is not here.

Ludibras: 

No, he is not yet come.

    [Enter the King.]

King Karnos: 

The Queen’s maidens have persuaded her that there is nothing to fear.  They are quite excellent; they shall dance before me.  The Queen will sleep; they are quite excellent.  Ah, Ichtharion.  Come to me, Ichtharion.

Ludibras: 

Why does the King send for you?

King Karnos: 

You were wrong, Ichtharion.

Ichtharion: 

Your Majesty!

    [Ludibras watches.]

King Karnos: 

You were wrong to think that Thek is not very lovely.

Ichtharion: 

Yes, I was wrong and I am much to blame.

King Karnos: 

Yes, it is very beautiful at evening.  I will watch them go down over the orchids.  I will never see Barbul-el-Sharnak any more.  I will sit and watch the sun go down on the orchids till it is gone and all their colours fade.

Ichtharion: 

It is very beautiful now.  How still it is!  I have never seen so still a sunset before.

King Karnos: 

It is like a picture done by a dying painter, full of a beautiful colour.  Even if all these orchids died to-night yet their beauty is an indestructible memory.

Ludibras:  [Aside to Ichtharion]

The prophet is coming this way.

Ichtharion: 

Your Majesty, the prophet walks about in the palace, and the executioner is close behind him.  If the Queen saw him and the executioner would it not trouble her?  Were it not better that he should be killed at once?  Shall I whistle for the executioner?

King Karnos: 

Not now.  I said at sunset.

Ichtharion: 

Your Majesty, it is merciful to kill a man before the set of the sun.  For it is natural in a man to love the sun.  But to see it set and to know that it will not come again is even a second death.  It would be merciful to kill him now.

King Karnos: 

I have said—­at sunset.  It were unjust to kill him before his prophecy is proven false.

Ichtharion: 

But, your Majesty, we know that it is false.  He also knows it.

King Karnos: 

He shall die at sunset.

Ludibras: 

Your Majesty, the prophet will pray for life if he is not killed now. 
It would be pity to grant it.